The 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed the major proposition of "building socialism with Chinese characteristics"
(I)
Reform is the second revolution in China. This revolution began with the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party. Since then, the whole Party has emancipated its mind, sought truth from facts, and looked forward in unity. By the convening of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in September 1982, in the past four years, our party has done a lot of "although it is risky", but it is "very important and must be done", which has brought a good situation in our country in terms of ideological, political and economic situation, laying a good foundation and making important preparations for the convening of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
First, re-establish the ideological line of seeking truth from facts and successfully complete the guiding ideology.
A stable and united political situation is an indispensable condition and guarantee for the cause of socialist modernization. In terms of ideological and political , after the discussions on ideological and theoretical issues at the Central Working Conference in 1978 and the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, our party has returned to the correct track of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. At the same time, our party has accelerated the review and rehabilitation of unjust, false and wrong cases in accordance with the principle of seeking truth from facts and correcting mistakes. From "removing the hat" to restoring the identity of a worker, from formulating and implementing policies in various aspects to cultivating talents in modernization construction, our party mobilized all positive factors and adjusted relations in multiple aspects, greatly maintaining the stability and unity of the country.
But at the same time, our party has also discovered some issues worthy of vigilance: some people evaluate Mao Zedong and Mao Zedong Thought dogmatically, and do not understand or even resist the principles and policies of the Party’s shift in the focus of work and rehabilitation of unjust, false and wrong cases; some people use the Party to correct its own mistakes, and misinterpret the slogan of “liberating the mind” under the guise of so-called “social reform”, thereby denying the leadership of the Communist Party and denying the socialist system of . If the above situation is allowed to develop, it will inevitably cause extremely serious consequences. In response to this, on March 30, 1979, Deng Xiaoping clearly proposed at the Party’s theoretical work meeting to adhere to the four basic principles, which sets the political bottom line for rectifying the chaos of the guiding ideology.
In order to fundamentally correct the wrong tendencies of "left" and right, the Party Central Committee decided that the Party will re-understand the historical path the Party has taken since the founding of New China and scientifically summarize the experiences and lessons of history. In September 1979, the Fourth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China initially summarized the Party’s historical experience 30 years after the founding of New China. Shortly thereafter, under the auspices of Deng Xiaoping, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China began to draft the "Resolution on Several Historical Issues of the Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China", and was approved at the of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party, held in June 1981. The Resolution first made a correct conclusion on a series of major issues since the founding of New China. At the same time, it evaluated Mao Zedong's historical status in a realistic manner and fully discussed the great significance of Mao Zedong Thought as the guiding ideology of the Party. The passage of the "Resolution" marks the successful completion of the Party's guiding ideology and is of great guiding significance for the development of reform and opening up and socialist modernization.
Second, effectively adjust the national economy, start and promote reform and opening up step by step.
In April 1979, the Central Working Conference determined the policy of "adjustment, reform, rectification and improvement" for the national economy. The adjustment mainly targets the problem of major relationship imbalances in the national economy such as agriculture and industry, light industry and heavy industry, accumulation and consumption. It particularly emphasizes that economic development must be based on China's national conditions, comply with economic laws and natural laws, and also act within one's ability and progress step by step, repeatedly argue and emphasize practical results, and find a new path with relatively realistic speed, better economic benefits, and people can get more affordable benefits. Under the strong leadership of the Party, by the end of 1982, the national economy reversed the instability caused by major proportional imbalances, and the economic situation improved relatively rapidly.
The process of adjusting the national economy is actually a process of exploring reform. Reform, take the lead in making breakthroughs in rural areas.On the winter night of 1978, the "Large Contract Life and Death Situation" signed by 18 villagers from the Xiaogang Production Team in Fengyang County, Anhui Province kicked off the prelude to my country's rural reform. Subsequently, many places suitable for household contract responsibility system also have household contract responsibility system, which has a very good effect and changes very quickly. But at this time, some people questioned the contracting of households, believing that this would leave the socialist track. In this regard, in May 1980, Deng Xiaoping pointed out in his conversation on "On Rural Policy Issues": "The vast majority of the production teams in Fengyang County, which was sung in the ' Fengyang Huagu ', had a large-scale contract responsibility system, and it also turned over in one year and changed its appearance. Some comrades were worried whether this would affect the collective economy. I think this kind of worry is unnecessary." In September, the Party Central Committee issued the "Several Issues on Further Strengthening and Improving the Responsibility System for Agricultural Production", which affirmed that the contract and contract households and the contract households were all dependent on the socialist economic of and should be maintained for a long time. With the strong support of the Party Central Committee, various forms of household contract responsibility system developed rapidly, and by 1982, it reached 86.7% of the total number of in the national production team, an increase of 36.7 percentage points from 1980.
Urban economic system reform began with an attempt to break the "iron rice bowl". In July 1978, Guangdong Qingyuan Nitrogen Fertilizer Factory made a bold decision: to pay 50,000 yuan to set up a comprehensive award and link it to output, and to allocate it to workers according to the more work and the more you get. In this way, the factory turned losses into profits the next year and its production capacity increased significantly. This practice was later summarized as the "Qingyuan Experience" by Xi Zhongxun, then the first secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, and played a good demonstration role in the reform of the management system of state-owned industrial enterprises. In April 1979, the Party Central Committee decided to carry out a pilot reform for to expand enterprise autonomy in large state-owned enterprises in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and other places. By June 1980, the number of pilot enterprises nationwide expanded to 6,600. Since then, based on summarizing the previous experience, from the central government to the local government, the reform pilot has been gradually pushed toward the economic responsibility system and fiscal system and other aspects, including: implementing a new fiscal system that divides income and expenditure, classifies the contract, and can be multi-income and multiple expenses from 1980; initially launching the reform of the commercial circulation system with the goal of establishing multiple channels, few links, and production and sales; starting from 1981, small and medium-sized cities have been selected to conduct comprehensive reform experiments on urban economic system; and so on.
Third, political system reform has started, and the construction of socialist democracy and rule of law has gradually gotten on the right track.
The communiqué of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out: "To realize the four modernizations requires a significant improvement of productivity, which inevitably requires changing the production relations and superstructure that are not suitable for the development of productivity in many aspects, and changing all unsuitable management methods, activities and ideas, so it is a broad and profound revolution." This is an important conclusion drawn by the Party Central Committee carefully summarizing and learning from the experiences and lessons learned in the political life of the Party and the country in the past. Taking this as a consensus, a political system reform with reforming the leadership system of the Party and the state has begun to take shape with democracy and legalization as its main content.
At this time, the highlight of political system reform was the reform of the leadership system of the Party and the state. In August 1980, Deng Xiaoping delivered a speech on "Reform of the Party and the State Leadership System" at an enlarged meeting held by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee. Deng Xiaoping emphasized that the issues of leadership system and organizational system are more fundamental, overall, stable and long-term. Reforming the leadership system of the Party and the country is not to weaken the Party’s leadership and disintegrate the Party’s discipline, but to uphold and strengthen the Party’s leadership and uphold and strengthen the Party’s discipline. This speech clarified the basic guiding ideology for the reform of the Party and the state leadership system. In February 1982, the Party Central Committee made the "Decision on Establishing the Retirement System for Old Cadres". In this regard, a group of tested young and middle-aged cadres took up leadership positions. Through gradual adjustment, rectification and strengthening the leadership teams of the Party and the country at all levels, the leadership of the Party and the country organizations at all levels has basically been in the hands of cadres who are loyal to the Party and the people.
(II)
After several years of comprehensive rectification, my country's socialist modernization construction has begun to embark on the track of healthy development and has made a series of new achievements.Therefore, the convening of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was put on the agenda. The 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was the first National Congress held by the Party after entering the new era of reform and opening up. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China attached great importance to this and took more than two years to prepare for the preparations.
In February 1980, the Fifth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held. The plenary session pointed out that the great practice of the people of all ethnic groups in the country to march towards the four modernizations has now proposed a series of major issues that need to be resolved quickly without taking the opportunity, including determining the long-term plan for national economic development, determining the economic system that is suitable for the needs of national economic development, and determining the educational plan and education system that is suitable for the needs of national economic development. With the change of the domestic situation, a series of important issues in the country's political life and the party's life, and some important issues in ideological and theoretical aspects, also need to be resolved accordingly, so as to facilitate the development and consolidation of a stable, united and lively political situation, and to facilitate the smooth progress of modernization construction. In order to solve these urgent problems, the Central Committee is required to convene the 12th National Congress of the Party in advance. The Central Plenary Session unanimously passed a decision to convene the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in advance. The specific time for convening this conference shall be decided by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee. The Fifth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee also stipulated the main agenda, representative quota, distribution principles, and method of generation of the 12th National Congress. Since then, the preparations for the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China have been carried out from two aspects.
First, with the high attention of party organizations at all levels, the election of representatives attending the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is completed. According to the "Resolution on Convening the Twelfth National Congress of the Party" passed by the Fifth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the number of representatives of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is 1,600. In April 1980, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held a meeting to pass the "Several Opinions on the Election of Delegates of the 12th National Congress", requiring representatives participating in the 12th National Congress to be born by secret balloting on the basis of convening county, city and prefecture party congresses or representative meetings, and the representative election work must be completed by the end of November. The "Opinions" also put forward specific requirements on the proportion of representatives in all aspects, including gender, age, professional proportion and ethnicity. The Politburo meeting also made the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Incapacitation of Working Old Comrades Impossible as Representatives of the Twelfth National Congress and Candidates of the Central Committee", which is an important step in abolishing the lifetime system of cadre positions and gradually updating the leadership team.
In May 1980, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee held a symposium on selecting outstanding young and middle-aged cadres, pointing out that to select truly qualified party representatives, we must fully prepare and truly obtain the consent of the majority of party members. We must not "circle" a few people; the list is not confidential, and we must publicly mention it among party members to prepare and discuss it, and do not be afraid of changes. After full deliberation, the representative election work was finally completed at the end of July 1982. The local party organizations selected a total of 1,600 representatives and 149 alternate representatives were selected in proportion. Among all the representatives, nearly 40% of the young representatives, and professionals and experts in all aspects account for a considerable proportion; among the 55 ethnic minorities in my country, 146 outstanding party members from 38 ethnic groups were selected as representatives. Among the representatives, there are also a few comrades who have made mistakes in the "Cultural Revolution" but have contributed to the Party in the long-term revolutionary struggle.
The second is to modify Party Constitution . This work began in the winter of 1979. By convening symposiums, conducting field research, drafting and soliciting opinions on multiple occasions, the "Constitution of the Communist Party of China (Draft Amendment)" was reviewed and approved at the Seventh Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held on August 6, 1982. This plenary session is also very important for the preparations for the 12th National Congress. It is this plenary session that publicly announced to the whole party and the people of the whole country that it would restore the good tradition of fully exposing its congress to the people of the whole country as in , the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of China. The plenary session clarified the specific time of the convening of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, reviewed and passed the report of the Central Committee to the 12th National Congress of the Party, reviewed and passed the "Constitution of the Communist Party of China (Draft Amendment)", and unanimously decided to submit these two documents to the 12th National Congress of the Party for deliberation.The meeting also discussed and approved letters of tribute to Liu Bocheng and Cai Chang, who were no longer in leadership positions due to long-term illness in the year, and expressed the cordial greetings and high respect from all comrades of the Party in the name of the plenary session.
On August 30, 1982, after careful preparation, the preparatory meeting of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing. The meeting passed the three main agendas of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and elected the Presidium of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the 31-member Presidium Standing Committee. The task of the 12th National Congress was put forward at the meeting: to make a successful summary of the great historic turning point achieved in the six years since the crushing of the "Gang of Four", especially since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee. At the same time, we will determine the Party's grand goals and combat tasks in the new era, so that our Party can lead the people of all ethnic groups across the country to strive for the creation of a new situation in socialist modernization with a new look and strong combat effectiveness.
(III)
From September 1 to 11, 1982, the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held. There were 1,545 formal representatives attending the conference, 145 alternate representatives, representing 39.65 million party members across the country. Deng Xiaoping presided over the opening ceremony of the conference and delivered an opening speech. After Deng Xiaoping delivered the opening speech, Hu Yaobang delivered a report to the Congress on behalf of the 11th Central Committee on the basis of the "Comprehensive Creation of a New Situation in Socialist Modernization Construction", and outlined a blueprint for achieving the grand goal of building socialism with Chinese characteristics from the aspects of politics, economy, culture and ideology, diplomacy and party building.
In the opening speech, Deng Xiaoping fully explained the historical status of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China by reviewing the development history since the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China. What is particularly important is that Deng Xiaoping made a new theoretical summary of the guiding ideology of socialist modernization since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee, and for the first time clearly put forward the scientific proposition of "building socialism with Chinese characteristics". Deng Xiaoping said: "Our modernization construction must start from China's reality. Whether it is revolution or construction, we must pay attention to learning and learning from foreign experience. However, copying and copying the experiences and models of other countries will never be successful. has learned a lot of lessons in this regard. Combining the universal truth of Marxism with the specific reality of our country, taking our own path, and building socialism with Chinese characteristics is the basic conclusion we have drawn from summarizing long-term historical experience." The proposal of "building socialism with Chinese characteristics" has solved the problem of what path China's modernization construction takes, thus becoming the banner that the Party and the people have always held high.
In the report "Comprehensively Creating a New Situation in Socialist Modernization Construction", Hu Yaobang proposed that the Party's overall task in the new historical period is: unite the people of all ethnic groups in the country, rely on themselves, work hard, gradually realize the modernization of industry, agriculture, national defense and science and technology, and build our country into a highly civilized and highly democratic socialist country. Among them, the primary task is to continue to push forward the construction of a socialist modern economic development. To this end, the conference determined the strategic goals, strategic priorities, strategic steps and a series of correct policies of my country's economic construction in a realistic manner. It is clearly stated that from 1981 to the end of the 20th century, my country's overall goal of economic development was to strive to quadruple the annual total output value of industrial and agricultural nationwide and to make the people's material and cultural life reach a well-off level under the premise of continuously improving economic benefits. Changing the overall goal of my country's economic development from the previous four modernizations to achieving a moderately prosperous society is a historic decision made by the Party Central Committee on summarizing historical experiences and lessons. It ignited the Chinese people's dream of building a prosperous society and greatly enhanced the Chinese people's determination and confidence to build a better future.
(IV)
The 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China broke through the previous dogmatic understanding of socialism and put forward many innovative theoretical views. For example, regarding the relationship between planning and market, a new principle of "planned economy as the main body, market regulation as the auxiliary" was proposed, that is, "planned production and circulation are the main body of our national economy. At the same time, it is allowed to not plan the production and circulation of some products and be regulated by the market."For example, a new summary of the basic characteristics of socialism was made, highlighting that socialist spiritual civilization and socialist democracy are both important features of socialism and an important manifestation of the superiority of the socialist system. To build socialist material and spiritual civilization, we must ensure and support it by continuing to develop socialist democracy. The construction of socialist democracy must be closely integrated with the construction of socialist legal system. Such scientific conclusions are another milestone in our party's understanding of the laws of socialist construction. They not only solve many major problems in modernization construction, but also enrich and develop the theory of scientific socialism.
The 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China reviewed and passed the " Constitution of the Communist Party of China ". The new Party Constitution concentrates the wisdom of the whole party, summarizes the historical experience of the Party, inherits and develops the advantages of the Party Constitution of the Seventh and Eighth National Congresses, eliminates the "left" mistakes in the Party Constitution of the Eleventh National Congress, reflects the requirements of the Party's real life, and provides a powerful ideological weapon for rectifying the Party's organization and changing the Party's style. The new Party Constitution has a relatively rich "general outline", which has made provisions on the theory and practice of scientific socialism, the superiority of the socialist system, the main contradictions of China's current socialism and the general tasks of the Party, the basic requirements for strengthening party building, and how the Party plays its role correctly in national life. The Party Constitution is the "first discipline" that Communist Party members must abide by. The new Party Constitution puts forward stricter requirements for all Party members, especially Party member leading cadres. The Party Constitution of the 12th National Congress pointed out that members of the Communist Party of China are pioneer soldiers of the Chinese working class who have the awareness of communism. They must serve the people wholeheartedly, sacrifice everything for their own people, and strive for the realization of communism for life. It is particularly emphasized that party members are always ordinary members of the working people... All Communist Party members are not allowed to seek any selfish interests or privileges. For the first time, the party oath was included in the Party Constitution, requiring probationary party members to take the oath to join the Party to face the party flag. A new chapter of "Party Cadres" was added, proposing that "Party cadres are the backbone of the Party's cause and the public servants of the people", which put forward higher requirements for the political, ideological, knowledge and professional qualities of leading cadres at all levels than ordinary party members.
The 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China elected the Central Committee, the Central Advisory Committee and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. What is particularly striking about is that the newly established Central Advisory Committee "should be said to be a transition from the lifelong system to the retirement system" and is an important achievement of the reform of the leadership system of the Party and the state. Regarding the Central Advisory Committee, the new Party Constitution also made clear provisions. Its tasks are: "Promote suggestions on the formulation and implementation of the Party's policies and policies, accept consultations; assist the Central Committee in investigating and dealing with certain important issues; publicize the Party's major policies and policies inside and outside the Party; undertake other tasks entrusted by the Central Committee." By establishing the Central Advisory Committee, the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China successfully solved the problem of the new and old alternating between the Party's leading cadres. A large number of party members and cadres with both moral integrity and ability and young strength entered the Central Committee and took on the leadership of the Central Committee; a large number of respected and experienced old comrades withdrew from the front line and participated in the work of the Central Advisory Committee. New comrades and old comrades, work closely together and continue to struggle. This unique way of handover is a pioneering move in the history of the International Communist Movement.
The convening of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China marks the successful realization of a great transformation of great historical significance. Our party’s guiding ideology for socialist modernization is clearer, and Party building can better adapt to the needs of the new historical period. The top leadership of the party has become a more vibrant battle command center. China has thus entered a new political track of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has also been recorded in history by creating a new situation in socialist modernization.
Source: Learning Times
